Wednesday, March 10, 2010

... it started as a project for my 3-d class. But as evolved into so much more.

The project was to start from nothing and build from scratch. We made our own needles from long pieces of birch wood. We also made our own yarn but cutting up the fabric of our choice. I wanted my project to be significant to me. The fabric I chose to cut into strips and join together to create yarn, was my all girls Catholic School uniform. Next, we knit our yarn into 12in. x 12in. patches. And after we had all completed out patches we joined them together into a blanket.

There was something insanely satisfying about cutting up my plaid uniform, my polo shirt, and gray knit sweater. I was having trouble accepting that my life is not going to be the same as it was in high school. The change was almost too much to handle. This project helped me move on a little more.

As I said knitting for me has gone much farther than the project itself. Having started art school with a very specific concentration in mind (Ceramics), i found it hard to find significance in other aspects of art at first. I was unsure about my classes, often saying "I just want to make something with clay." But through knitting I regained my ability to express myself and my creativity through more than just one art form. Knitting in tern saved my art. Just as i was beginning to feel I lost touch with my art, I found my inspiration, my muse, through knitting.

First Semester in the Hite Art Institute at UL and it's going great!! And I can't believe it's already half over. But here are the first couple projects we finished!!

The Geek Burger. The goal was to put together found objects in a way that was beyond their original meaning. The lettuce is felt, the burger is made from a sock wrapped around a Tupperware lid. Both the top and bottom bun are Tupperware covered in sand.

Heart. The goal of this project was to make an extension of ourselves. This is an extension of my emotions spilling out in the tangled mess that they are.